Temper Quotes

• WHEN YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT, YOU CAN AFFORD TO KEEP YOUR TEMPER; AND WHEN YOU ARE IN THE WRONG, YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO LOSE IT.

  Chester Bowles

  Grandchildren, Loses

  Chester Bowles (1954). “Ambassador's Report”, New York : Harper

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• Just because you're an adult doesn't mean you're grown up. Growing up means being patient, holding your temper, cutting out the self-pity, and quitting with the righteous indignation.'
  
  'Why do so many people seem to love righteous indignation?'
  
  'Because if you can prove you're a victim, all rules are off. You can lash out at people. You don't have to be accountable for anything.

  Brandon Stanton

  Growing Up, Mean, Cutting

  Brandon Stanton (2013). “Humans of New York”, p.290, St. Martin's Press

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• There's a great deal of difference between temperament and temper. Temperament is something you welcome creatively, for it is based on sensitivity, empathy, awareness ... but a bad temper takes too much out of you and doesn't really accomplish anything.

  Lucille Ball

  Differences, Empathy, Too Much

  Lucille Ball (1997). “Love, Lucy”, p.31, Penguin

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• There are only two people who can tell you the truth about yourself - an enemy who has lost his temper and a friend who loves you dearly.

  Antisthenes

  Love, Friendship, Dream

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• Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Wise, 4th Of July, Anger

  Benjamin Franklin (2008). “The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac”, p.36, Nayika Publishing

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• We must interpret a bad temper as a sign of inferiority.

  Alfred Adler

  Inferiority, Bad Temper, Inferiority Complex

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• Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.

  Baltasar Gracian

  Anger, Angry Feelings, Worldly Wisdom

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• Man seems to be capable of great virtues but not of small virtues; capable of defying his torturer but not of keeping his temper.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Literature, Virtue

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• Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than the arguments of its opposers.

  William Penn

  Truth, Freedom, Suffering

  William Penn (1782). “The Select Works of William Penn....”, p.135

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• Good temper, like a sunny day, sheds a ray of brightness over everything; it is the sweetener of toil and the soother of disquietude!

  Washington Irving

  Rays, Toil, Brightness

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• Don't let the sun go down on me.

  Elton John

  Forgiveness, Anger, Angry Man

  Song: Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me, 1974

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• Many people lose their tempers merely from seeing you keep yours.

  Frank Moore Colby

  Anger, Inspiration, People

  Frank Moore Colby (1926). “The pursuit of humor and other essays”

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• O! Let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven; keep me in temper; I would not be mad!

  William Shakespeare

  Sweet, Mad, Heaven

  'King Lear' (1605-6) act 1, sc. 5, l. [51]

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• A vigorous temper is not altogether an evil. Men who are easy as an old shoe are generally of little worth.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Men, Shoes, Evil

  Spurgeon, Charles, Delmarva Publications,Inc (2015). “The Complete Works of C. H. Spurgeon, Volume 83”, p.97, Delmarva Publications, Inc.

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• A fretful temper will divide the closest knot that may be tied, by ceaseless sharp corrosion; a temper passionate and fierce may suddenly your joys disperse at one immense explosion.

  William Cowper

  Joy, Passionate, May

  William Cowper (1874). “The poetical works of William Cowper, ed: with notes and biographical introd. by William Benham”, p.343

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• My life is in the hands of any fool who makes me lose my temper.

  Joseph Hunter

  Hands, Fool, Life Is

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• It is only our bad temper that we put down to being tired or worried or hungry; we put our good temper down to ourselves.

  C. S. Lewis

  Wisdom, Tired, Hungry

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.41, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper; so cry away.

  Charles Dickens

  Eye, Exercise, Cry

  Charles Dickens (1839). “Oliver Twist”, p.142

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• People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.

  Edmund Burke

  Inspirational, Family, Memories

  Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

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• Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he's well dressed. There ain't much credit in that.

  Charles Dickens

  Funny, Humorous, Men

  'Martin Chuzzlewit' (1844) ch. 5 (Mark Tapley)

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• The difficult part of good temper consists in forbearance, and accommodation to the ill-humors of others.

  William Empson

  Forbearance, Accommodations, Difficult

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• In vain he seeketh others to suppress, Who hath not learn'd himself first to subdue.

  Edmund Spenser

  Firsts, Vain

  Edmund Spenser (1715). “The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser”, p.872

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• Mutability of temper and inconsistency with ourselves is the greatest weakness of human nature.

  Joseph Addison

  Nature, Weakness, Literature

  Joseph Addison (1828). “A second selection from the papers of Addison in the Spectator and Guardian, for the use of young persons, by E. Berens”, p.40

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• Instability of temper ought to be checked when it disposes men to wander from one scheme to another: since such a fickleness cannot but be attended with fatal consequences.

  Joseph Addison

  Men, Schemes, Wander

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• Through certain humors or passions, and from temper merely, a man may be completely miserable, let his outward circumstances be ever so fortunate.

  Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

  Passion, Men, May

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